Students face potential employers at ‘reverse’ job fair

Saturday

Nearly 100 students in four programs at the Lenawee Intermediate School District Tech Center had the chance Friday to interact with potential employers through a “reverse” job fair.

The students in the advanced manufacturing, alternative energy and robotics, engineering design and CAD, and welding technology programs set up tables and displayed their talents and abilities through computerized presentations and hardware items, while employers examined their wares and asked for resumes.

Tommy Cameron, assistant principal of curriculum and instruction at the Tech Center, said the four programs represented during the reverse job fair are deemed a “high need” in the current job market.

“It is important to put the students in an interview situation with an employer who really is looking for employees,” he said.

Given the success of Friday’s job fair, the event may be expanded to include additional programs from the Tech Center.

Eli Megale, a junior at Sand Creek High School and a first-year student in the advance manufacturing program at the Tech Center, said his education goal is to attend a trade school with an eventual career in tool-and-die and special trades.

“The employers were asking us how we’re liking the trade, how our school year’s going,” Megale said. He said the job fair also prepared him to interact positively with potential employers.

Teaghan Hess, a senior at Sand Creek and a second-year student in advanced manufacturing, said he hopes to become a machinist after graduating from high school.

Hess spoke to four company representatives in the first half-hour of the reverse job fair. He said he has spoken before with potential employers, but was a little nervous as they came to him.